Is it really safe to return to school?

[MrsHookey]

Child is in school. 4 year groups have been sent home to self isolate. Is this a widespread thing? Is it relatively safe to have the child back at school?

I think it's kind of irrelevant if it's safe or not. It is almost certainly safe for the kids, probably not so much for the rest of the population. However it being safe for the children doesn't mean that schools will stay open. It's looking increasingly likely that either children will spend at least half the term isolating/waiting for tests or schools will close again. In our school there is currently no work set for children at home (primary) so in some ways education wise they would be better off with schools shut. However DS is so much happier at school. I'm thinking we just have to accept that he is probably going to loose a years worth of schooling but over his childhood he will catch up. Much harder for teenagers to catch up though.
Everyone is stuck between a rock and a hard place.

@TheEmojiFormerlyKnownAsPrince

2200 people in one building. All bubbles mix at home time All bubbles mix on heaving corridors Small classrooms with 30 or so adult size people ( and l mean small) 1/2 the school travel on public transport 5 secondary bubbles shut near me already due to student Covid cases Freezing glare from students if anyone coughs Scared kids Shielding kids and adults forced into this

Yep it’s safe. Absolutely😒

😢😢😢

Having living parents is good. But I think you have the risks wrong for almost everyone. There just aren't large numbers of cases where children have brought infection home and then infected their parents. Don't forget schools are open all over the world.

If it is safe then why are children included in Boris’ rule of 6? Schools can’t run without staff so whilst the majority of children (12 and under as there doesn’t seem to be as much data on teens yet) are low risk, the staff might not be. This includes people with health conditions which are managed in usual times but where Covid presents a real threat and also women in their third trimester of pregnancy.

I think that many schools will shut due to unsafe staffing before the government takes action. Children are important but due to the way this virus works they are not the only consideration in physically keeping schools open.

There's no answer to this question, safe has no absolute definition, every child in every school will have unique circumstances, no one can say.

This has been discussed on here literally every day since Mid March (maybe you are a new poster) and still the same replies come up on every thread, some people are living in fear every day, some people are prefectly happy to send their children to school and there is every opinion in between.

Schools are not COVID secure despite the risk assessments. COVID secure is a pr spin that means (for schools) no social distancing, bubbles mixing, minimal cleanliness procedures, poor or no ventilation..

If it is safe then why are children included in Boris’ rule of 6

I was wondering that. I suspect it's because where there are children there are parents and they don't want 30 parents coming round to pick up their children and staying for a chat/drink.

@Timeforanotherusername

The risk to children being out of school is greater.

Children are not at risk from this virus.

Also I suspect the govt learned that if you give us an inch we take a mile so just went for the simplest rule possible.

Rule of 6 in England can be made up of 6 different households.

So if we had 6 people all with 3 children under 12 then that's 30 people.

Scotland is 6 people from 2 households. So 2 couples with 3 children each is 10 people.

Just a slight difference...

The rule of 6 has been brought in to keep kids at school and lower overall infection rate.

I just don't get wh people can't see that. Reduce the risk outside, then any risk in schools is lower.

I understand that @Timeforanotherusername . Boris has defended including children in this rule by saying that they do catch and spread Covid. This is a valid point as how can schools be Covid secure in this instance?

Around the city near where I live there are billboards advertising that schools are safe. If schools truly are safe then the government / local councils wouldn’t need to put money into advertising campaigns to convince people of this.

I'm clinically extremely vulnerable and my son is vulnerable. His school has had a couple of cases and has only sent home the kids sat directly next to them, not the class let alone the wider bubble. I took my son out of school last week because rates have risen really high in our surrounding small villages, and school have told me today that they'll be referring us to education safeguarding after 10 days. Feel totally I'm just trying to keep us safe.

I'm clinically extremely vulnerable and my son is vulnerable.

That is really tough. I feel for you.

@notevenat20

Having living parents is good. But I think you have the risks wrong for almost everyone. There just aren't large numbers of cases where children have brought infection home and then infected their parents. Don't forget schools are open all over the world.

I think you are missing my point that different parents have different vulnerabilities.

I don't often quote Boris for good sense but "It is, alas, a fact of the disease that it is readily transmissible between children and adults"

And the schools open elsewhere in the world almost universally have smaller class sizes and better covid precautions. And still have some outbreaks.

I think children will be far more devastated by losing a parent/s than by having another few months not fully in the classroom - at least mine would be.

And if we approach this intelligently,we can work around people's different needs.

@Clairaloulou

I sympathise, being in a similar situation myself in some ways (we are currently self isolating ? covid).

But there are practical ways to help this situation as well as sympathy. Like allowing parents like us temporary home schooling while we are in a PANDEMIC.

I just ask, why have we all decided to start believing Johnson now? It's not like he normally knows what he is talking about.

heresomesthesun , do you really believe a few more months off school will fix the problem of a virus that has spread to every corner of the earth ?

@notevenat20

I just ask, why have we all decided to start believing Johnson now? It's not like he normally knows what he is talking about.

Even he now admits this obvious truth, which you appeared not to be taking into full account.

@OpheliasCrayon

Is it ok to keep children away from education indefinitely though until it is safe? Because I doubt it ever will be safe......there's no such thing as risk free. But children need an education, they need to play with their peers. Like it or not schools need to be open and children need to be there. And I say that as a mother a teacher and someone who is extremely vulnerable. Life has to go on now

I agree with this. Children need an education and we need to be able to work to put a roof over our heads and food on the table.

@Dontforgetyourbrolly

heresomesthesun , do you really believe a few more months off school will fix the problem of a virus that has spread to every corner of the earth ?

It will get us through the winter, which will be a very difficult one. We can hunker down, and survive.

I don't think this is asking for very much.

A lot of scientific resources are going into research on this illness. With a new pathogen, you want to put off getting infected for as long as possible, so that medical science can work out the best treatment pathway. Especially if you are likely to be vulnerable to it.

I asked you this on another thread noteven. Where us this all over the world where all schools are fully open with no SD and case numbers as high as ours? I know of 4 places. Three have no viable data yet for your confident assertions and the other has been famously cited for its outbreaks.

Please don't give examples of countries with far sparser populations and / or lower cases. I'll allow you the Netherlands. Where students are not allowed in school with so much as a sniffle and testing is available for cold symptoms.

I was more worried in March

But for now I’m glad they’re back

But I’ll keep an eye on numbers

No. If you think that bubbles, hubs staggered timings and desk wiping are conducive to ordered behaviours accompanying focused, quality learning then you need your bumps felt.

@herecomesthsun yep totally. The thing is, our school has set up all their lessons online, to be used as and when kids are off. So we can access all the work they're doing. Granted, I'm having a nightmare getting him to do any work, but we're still doing some. He's not on his Xbox all day then playing out. We are shielding, I'm even staying upstairs out of the way when my carer comes.

I think we're at a stage where every family needs to be able to make their own decision about this. We are a non-vulnerable family and I have always felt that the benefits of dc returning to school far outweigh the risks (including the risks to of prolonged isolation to their mental and emotional health). I still feel this way but I completely understand that families with a different level of vulnerability will be weighing risks in a different way. As parents, all we can do is support one another, speak out for the rights of children and vulnerable people and take this government to task for the unconscionable mess they've made of the whole thing.